Microcircuit Dynamics in the Striatum

Motor behaviour requires the meaningful integration of a multitude of sensory information. The basal ganglia are essential for such sensory-motor processing and underlie motor planning, performance, and learning. The striatum is the input layer of the basal ganglia, acting as a “hub” that receives glutamatergic and dopaminergic inputs from different brain regions. The intrastriatal microcircuit is a predominantly inhibitory GABAergic network comprised of a majority of projection neurons (medium spiny neurons, MSNs) and a minority of interneurons. In order to understand the operation of striatum it is essential to have a good description of the dynamic properties of the striatal microcicuitry and how it affects the activity striatal projection neurons. We use patch-clamp recordings in slice and in vivo combined with fluorescent microscopy and optogenetics to reveal the striatal microcircuit properties underlying sensorimotor processing